‘Tokyo: Art and Photography’ at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

29 July 2021 – 3 January 2022

Ahhh… Edo, Edo, Edo… …city of dreams, and occasional nightmares… …as Kumagai Jiro Naozane in the final part of the Kabuki play ‘Kumagai Jinya’ (Kumagai’s Battle Camp) says about the fragility of human existence “Juroku nen wa hito mukashi, aa, yume da yume da” (Sixteen years, like a day. Ahhh! It’s a dream, a dream). And if any phrase best represents both the negative and positive potentialities that have emerged from the natural and man-made adversities that have afflicted Tokyo and best reflect, at least in the mind of this reviewer, its impermanence, of almost continual destruction and re-construction since its inception as Edo, it is this one.

Art Exhibition Review: Works On Nature & Dance/Movement By Hiroko Imada

Expressive moods in colour!

Riverside Studios Gallery London – 16 March – 7 April 2013

On Monday, 18 March Diverse Japan attended a private viewing of the exhibition Works on Nature & Dance/Movement by Japanese artist Hiroko Imada, which is being held at the Riverside Studios Gallery in London from 16 March until 7 April (see foot of post for opening times). The exhibition is registered with

Art Exhibition: Works On Nature & Dance/Movement By Hiroko Imada

Press release

Date: 10am – 10pm, Sat 16 March – Sun 7 April 2013

Venue: The Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London, W6 9RL

Japanese artist Hiroko Imada is a graduate of the Slade, and has been living and working in London for over 20 years. She is a member of Palace Wharf Studios, and has drawn much artistic stimulation from its prime riverside location.

Meiji Era Kabuki: Three Shintomiza Tsuji Banzuke Part Three – 1912

Third and final part of the Meji Era Kabuki series by Kabuki collector and researcher Trevor Skingle!

The performance date places the performance this tsuji banzuke advertised on 8th February 1912, the last year, 46, of the Meiji era, which ended that same year with the death of Emperor Meiji on 30th July 1912, which had been a time of major changes in Japanese society. The developing Japanese fascination with photography and ‘bromides’ as they were called was reflected in the growing numbers of Kabuki images that became available and their collectors, usually rendered as postcards as is evidenced in those for

DA&D Presents PechaKucha: Japan In Aid Of The Ashinaga Organisation

PechaKucha: Japan 23 May, Doors open at 6.00pm, lecture starts at 7pm Logan Hall, Institute of Education

Just over a year after the tsunami sent shockwaves through a country and around the world, DA&D are putting together a collection of the design and communication world’s greatest stars to share stories about

Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy) Master Shoho Teramoto & The Enso Of Zen

Japanese calligraphy is an art-form that can reveal the depth of enlightenment and the personality of the artist!

Many of us are familiar with Japanese calligraphy.  Although we may not know the meaning of a particular character, its formation is instantly recognisable as being a symbol of the Far East which in itself is just a communication tool.  However, as the calligrapher forms a spiritual union with his/her brush and ink it then becomes known as ‘Shodo’, meaning to express the

Globe To Globe Festival: Chiten Theatre Company Performs Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus”

Tuesday 22 May 2012 from 7.30pm

Join the Japan Society at the Globe Theatre for Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, performed by Chiten Theatre Company, and get £10 off the best seats in the house! This is a rare opportunity to see this exciting Kyoto-based company, directed by Motoi Miura, one of Japan’s most imaginative artists. Working together with actors, stage designers, lighting artists and others, Chiten performances explore the